Army of True Salvation - Chapter 47：Started Falling for Him

“What the hell, Veon! Why is your answer negative,” Sheloah asked and Veon squinted his eyes at her.

“Are you crazy? This was already our lesson when we were in the first year! You should’ve perfected it already. Negative times negative is positive,” he explained and Sheloah looked at her solution as she compared it to Veon’s.

He was right.

Sheloah rolled her eyes at him. “Fine! I was wrong. I didn’t notice that my signs were incorrect,” Sheloah just said and Veon laughed at her as he hit her on the head lightly with his pen.

“You even argued with me, tsk tsk…”

Both of them laughed as they were solving together the next mathematical problems. Sir Jim also laughed when Sheloah got confused with the given.

Sheloah’s forte was always English. She was never good in math. As for Veon, his forte was mathematics. He’s even smart when it comes to physics. Sheloah was lucky to have him as her seatmate.

She didn’t expect it that in just five months, she would really get close with Veon. She started getting close with him in the second week of June and now, it’s November. They loved talking with each other because they had a lot of things in common.

Veon was one of the reasons why Sheloah’s sleeping late. They usually have late night calls or chats in Facebook. If they were not using Facebook, they would send each other SMS. Sheloah would usually sleep at 9:30PM but the latest she slept was 4AM in the morning, talking with Veon.

And since then, that’s when Sheloah realized that she started falling for him.

***

They were already rechecking their test paper in CLE. CLE means Christian Livelihood Education. They were enrolled in a Catholic school that’s why they also have this kind of subject.

Ms. Elvira looked at Ace. “Acerich Quintin! Stand up,” she said and the class laughed when their teacher said his full name. They all found his name weird.

Ace stood up and they laughed once more when his things started falling. He picked them up quickly as he put it on his armchair again.

Sheloah looked at Veon. “There he goes again! What would Ace do this time,” she said and Veon shrugged his shoulders as he was laughing.

“Doing his usual crazy antics, I guess,” Veon said and they all looked at Ace and Ms. Elvira, expectant of what’s about to happen.

Ms. Elvira went in front then spoke. “Will you please read your answers in the identification part? From one to five. Class, listen to his answers.” They all went quiet as they were waiting for Ace to speak.

“What is Rerum Novarum?” Ms. Elvira read the first question and Ace was trying his best to hide his laughter. “Say your answer!” When Ms. Elvira said this, almost shouting, Ace then laughed and spoke.

“Diary of a Wimpy Kid.”

Everyone in class then erupted in laughter. He obviously did not know the answer and what he did was just answer them randomly even though he knew that his answers were wrong!

Ms. Elvira also started laughing and the students then knew that their teacher did this on purpose. She had already checked their papers and when she checked Ace’s paper, she found it amusing and wanted to share it to the class.

“Where was Quadragesimo Anno created?” Ms. Elvira read the second question and everyone went quiet to listen to Ace’s answer.

Ms. Elvira stopped the class from laughing before she read the third question. “For what purpose is Gaudium et Spes?”

“Nasaan ka na, Sisa,” he answered and this answer made the class tear up.

“Nasaan ka na, Sisa” meant “where are you, Sisa” and this was a part of Jose Rizal’s story, El Fili Busterismo.

Veon was already hiding his face on his jacket as he embraced it, muffling his laugh. As for Sheloah, she was clapping like a retarted seal, with no sound coming out from her laughter. The whole class was indeed enjoying CLE subject.

“Pacem in Terris means ‘justice on earth.’ What are the three following points under this encyclical,” Ms. Elvira said and the class laughed even though Ace didn’t answer yet. They knew he had another wrong answer to this one.

“Hunger Games.”

Ms. Elvira leaned on the board behind her as she was calming herself down from laughing. The class was laughing uncontrollably, too. This was indeed a memory to remember.

“Now, Ace… amaze your classmates! Read your last answer,” Ms. Elvira instructed him and Ace looked at his paper to look at his final answer.

“Encyclical.”

“And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the right answer! Identification items one to five, he only got one.” Ms. Elvira clapped her hands and everyone did as well as they howled and laughed at Ace.

This was their first period in the afternoon, right after lunch break, and it had already woken them up.

***

It was already 6:24AM and only Veon and Sheloah were inside the classroom. She rested her head on his shoulder and spoke. “Today’s cold, isn’t it?”

Veon rolled his eyes at her. “And yet you didn’t bring any jacket or sweater,” he said as he took off his jacket and gave it to Sheloah for her to wear.

“Thank you.” Sheloah thanked and she blushed. Veon didn’t seem to notice.

Sheloah thought of what would happen to the future. When she thought of something suddenly, she spoke and got Veon’s attention.

“If ever I leave… would it be okay?”

“Why? Where to?” Veon sounded concern. This made Sheloah’s heart beat faster.

“We would be college students soon. If ever I pass the [1]UPCAT, maybe I would be in UP Diliman studying geology. But if not, maybe I’ll take education major in English,” Sheloah answered and Veon nodded slowly.

“Then… go pursue your dream. Whatever it is,” he said and she looked at him.

“Of course,” Sheloah agreed and they smiled at each other.

“But…”

He trailed off and Sheloah waited for him to speak again. She was curious as to what he was about to say. Veon becoming serious made her nervous.

“I’ll miss you.”

Sheloah suddenly avoided Veon’s eyes. Her heart suddenly became erratic. With the fear of Veon hearing her heartbeat, she held her chest with her right hand. There were only two people in their quiet classroom. This, of course, made Sheloah conscious.

“You’re my best friend. Who am I going to go crazy with?”

Sheloah suddenly looked at him and laughed awkwardly. She felt stupid for assuming something else! Of course, Veon would be talking about their friendship. What’s she assuming about?

“I’ll miss you too,” Sheloah just said as she smiled at Veon awkwardly, feeling thankful deep inside that Veon’s dense for not noticing her obvious display of attraction.